MB&F : the HM7 Aquapod goes green

Two years ago, MB&F released the remarkable Cnidarian-inspired HM7 Aquapod (about which you can read here) in two limited editions of sixty-six pieces in rose gold, and thirty-three pieces in titanium. The former had a black ceramic bezel and the latter, blue.

Now, the HM7 is back, and in titanium case with a striking bright green bezel. The case, which measures 53.8 mm in diameter and 21.3 mm thick, has two hemispheres of high-domed sapphire crystal on either side of a metal case band.

The HM7 Aquapod houses a vertically built up movement, featuring a winding rotor, mainspring barrel, hour and minute indicators all concentrically mounted around a central axis and rotating around it, with the central 60 second flying tourbillon dominating at the top. The tourbillon regulator is surrounded by the time display, told via two concentric discs made of aluminium and titanium that are supported by large ceramic ball bearings. The outer ring is the ours and the inner, minutes. The crown on the left of the case is to wind the movement, and the crown on the right is used to set the time.

The ‘floating’ unidirectional bezel is arguably the most attention-grabbing part of the Aquapod, itself a rather generally attention-grabbing timepiece anyway. Its insert, made of ceramic in the launch models, is now not only different in colour, but also material. A sapphire crystal ring in the desired green has been inserted inside the bezel. The numbers and indices have been printed in metallicised titanium and then a layer of green lacquer, applied.

The green HM7 illuminates in the dark thanks to the use of Super-LumiNova and AGT Ultra.

I haven’t yet asked them about the choice of green (and after blue), but there is one rather interesting thing to note, jellyfish-wise. This is something called ‘green fluorescent protein’ (GFP), that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to light in the blue to ultraviolet range. It was first isolated from Aequorea victoria, a bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish found off the west coast of North America, in 1962. In terms of fluorescence spectroscopy, the GFP from Aequorea victoria has an emission peak in the lower green portion of the visible spectrum.

The team behind this discovery won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for their work on GFP, which was so groundbreaking that lead to the now widespread use of luminosity as a tool in biological markers.

Whether following up a blue bezel with a green one was coincidence or deliberate, the idea of horological to actual jellyfish luminescence link is something rather cool.

The new green (Aequorea victoria?) edition of the HM7 will be in a limited edition of 50 pieces and has an RRP of 108,000 CHF (excl. taxes). As is the case with the other HM7s, its water resistance is only 50m, so tempting though it may be to take a photo of one with a glowing jellyfish, it’s probably best to stay on dry land for your wristshots.